Big plans to boost maple production in New York state and beyond under way in the nation’s capital.

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New York Sen. Chuck Schumer was in Chazy on Monday morning, drinking shots of maple syrup and touting his plan to tap the cash that grows inside of our maple trees.

Schumer was all smiles as he toured the Parker Maple Farm eating maple donuts and drinking swigs of maple syrup straight from the bottle.

However, the senator didn't come just for the syrup.

He came to announce a new bill he's sponsoring in Washington called the Maple Tap Act, which would arm the U.S. Department of Agriculture up to $20 million in grants for states that create programs to encourage more maple tapping.

He cited a Cornell University study that shows New York State currently taps less than one percent of its 300 million maple trees because many of them lie on public land, adding New York has the potential to produce more maple syrup than Vermont and the entire province of Quebec.

“We are well positioned in New York to seize this piping-hot economic opportunity, creating buckets of new jobs along the way,” Schumer said.

"We've seen maple syrup as the fastest growing agriculture industry in the last five years in the United States. There's great demand for the product and more people are tapping their trees to fill those markets,” Cornell University maple researcher Mike Farrell explained.

Schumer said the bill would provide money for the market, education and promotion of maple syrup.

The senator also said he plans to urge the state of New York to look into tapping trees inside the Adirondack Park.

He hopes to get the Maple Tap Act attached to the farm bill and passed by the end of September, which means maple producers could see money as soon as this October.

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